


At Hell's End

by AvaCelt



Series: 2020 Bollywood Prompt Fills [3]
Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arranged Marriage, Black Bulls Squad (Black Clover), Black Bulls Squad as Family (Black Clover), Blood and Violence, Body Horror, CHARHEN IF YOU SQUINT, Dark Comedy, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Darkfic, Fairy Tale Curses, Gen, Gothic, Horror, Horror Comedy, Inspired by Bollywood, Murder, One Big Happy Family, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, so Nacht is Not Here, sometime after the Spade Arc but like I haven't caught up on Black Clover in months
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:07:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27056155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaCelt/pseuds/AvaCelt
Summary: When a friend gets forced into an arranged marriage, what does it matter if a crime or two are committed in order to rescue him? For the Black Bulls, all's fair in love, war, and matchmaking! Or alternatively, that one time Henry Legolant needs rescuing from his not-so-nice suitor, and the Black Bulls get their shit together long enough to actually rescue him. [Henry-centric, Black Bulls as a family, horror comedy]
Relationships: Black Bulls Ensemble & Henry Legolant, Henry Legolant/Charmy Pappitson
Series: 2020 Bollywood Prompt Fills [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969198
Comments: 14
Kudos: 28
Collections: IAmStoryteller's Best of Black Clover Fic Rec





	At Hell's End

**Author's Note:**

> This is _absolutely_ a darkfic with some comedy, please don't clown yourselves, read what's on the tin.

Finral hears it first, and from a garrulous old friend of his father's, while he's just trying to have lunch with his younger brother. It helps that Langris is more focused on his food than he is on the harsh laughter of the old man who's attached to their father's hip, because what Finral hears freezes the blood in his veins.

“House Legolant wants to make a deal,” cackles the old man, spilling absinthe all over the polished wood of the long table, as the head of House Vaude laughs along. It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and there are birds chirping just outside the archway they're all gathered in, even though _technically_ , Finral is supposed to be eating his food and minding his business, like his brother, while the older men chuckle away at the other end of the table.

“To think that the heir is still alive after all this time,” Ledior Vaude ponders out loud, pouring the old man another fresh cup of green poison.

Finral's blood only gets colder when he sees the old man's lecherous smile.

* * *

Vanessa is Finral's best friend, so she hears it next, because Finral is a shaky little thing, and anything going in one ear is sure to come out of his mouth as soon as he gets back to the base.

“Vanessa!” He screeches, and Vanessa jumps ten feet in the air, before slamming back down on the couch. She's fuming, brandishing her threads in a threatening manner while Rouge meows and cuddles up to Finral's leg like nothing's wrong.

“Traitor,” she grumbles, before rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. “Why are you yelling?”

And that's when Vanessa learns that House Legolant has made a deal – with a monster.

* * *

It goes a little something like this – word gets back to to the Legolant Estate that the esteemed first son is alive, because Magic Knights and commoners alike witness him battle the young man and the little girl with weird markings on their faces. There's nothing special that stands out in terms of magic or mana, because it's almost _expected_ that the Black Bulls take in the weirdest of the weird in Clover Kingdom, and having a mana-sucking vampire in the midst isn't really anything special, not when there's a full-scale ghost invasion taking place.

No – what catches the audience's attention is the sky blue hair only few select families possess, hair so bountiful and strong that the members of those clans will do anything to preserve their locks.

So when a commoner witnesses pale blue hair trailing past a certain man's hips, he thinks to himself – could it be? A Legolant?

And so word spreads like wildfire, out into the boonies and beyond, until an estate a few days travel from the Heart Kingdom border catches whiff that there's a vampire walking around with pale blue hair that falls past his waist, a vampire who's now a Magic Knight and in service of the Wizard King, a vampire who's now a hero of the people.

And that's when the wheels start turning.

* * *

Charmy hears about it next, before Finral and Vanessa can get to her, because she bumps into some lady at the market during her evening grocery run.

“Miss Pappitson, is that right?”

“La?” Charmy inquires, craning her head as far back as she can so she can get a good look at the tall woman.

The woman is taller than even Yami, and Yami's one of the tallest people she's ever met. The woman dons a full skirt and bodice, adorned with rich jewels, and shielded from the dying sunlight by an umbrella one of her servants is holding over her head.

And yet, it's not even the height that catches Charmy's full attention – it's the hair, waves of loose and braided locks that cascade over the woman's shoulders like the purest of threads spun from raw gold.

“I'd like to invite you to some tea, Miss Pappitson,” the woman enunciates softly, so softly that Charmy almost misses her words.

“La?” She repeats, because most people she's encountered in her life don't even realize she's a fully-grown adult, cannot fathom that a little person can even exist within their realm.

“My apologies,” the woman says without a hint of emotion. “Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Lady Legolant – mother of Henry Legolant.”

And that's how Charmy hears about the arrangement – the union between man and man, not realizing that one of them is a monster.

* * *

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaat iiiiiiiiiis thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis, Moooooootheeeeeeeeeeeeeeer?”

“It's a marriage contract,” Lady Legolant says from outside the glass house Grey has erected for Henry so that he doesn't kill his mother by accident. The rest of the Black Bulls sit pensively around the two Legolants, as nosy as ever, but there's not a hint of joviality in the air. Poor Charmy doesn't get to hear Vanessa and Finral's side of the story that fateful evening, because Charmy has invited the Lady back to the base before the night is even over, because the Lady is the first noble to treat her with utmost respect, and Charmy can't say no to a Lady so nice, so pretty.

They're agitated but silent, because this woman, this _entity,_ exudes malice despite being human. Even Luck is eerily still, hands balled into fists in his lap, and a dark, foreboding look in his eyes that spell something worse than bloodlust.

“A maaaaaaaariaaaaage contraaaaaaaact?”

“Yes, for an arranged marriage,” Lady Legolant continues, as if Henry is but a child and not a twenty-seven year old man. “Aren't you excited? Someone's finally agreed to marry you, my dear son.”

Henry doesn't say anything for a while. The rest of the Black Bulls are gaping, some astonished, others disgusted that the woman would have the nerve to enter their domain after she left her own son for dead.

“Your father has found the perfect match,” Lady Legolant whispers, so cold, so soft, so _unreal._ “He's a nice man, Henry. He mainly works overseas, but he's agreed to wed you.”

“IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII aaaaaam aaaaaaa Maaaaaaaaagiiiiiic Kniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigt,” Henry pleads, and that's when Yami exhales harshly, already itching for a fight, but now _livid_ that Henry is in so much distress.

“Knights can marry!” The woman gushes, and Finral balks because that's how his stepmother talks when she's wishing ill upon him.

“Knights can marry,” she repeats lowly, even colder than before. Her freezing green eyes don't match the luster of her light blonde hair that shines even in the dim light of the torches scattered throughout the den. “ You'd still be able to perform your duties to our illustrious Wizard King, but remember, you also have to fulfill your duties to our house, my son. An opportunity like this will not arise again. He will look after you – and only take you a few times a year.”

Asta, who's only seventeen and barely understands innuendo unless someone _actually_ kicks his skull, even _he_ recognizes what the woman means, and he gags, because it's disgusting, _horrifying_ to think anyone would sell their child like bloody meat at a butcher's.

“Taaaaaaake meeeeeeeeeee?” Henry croaks listlessly.

_Bam!_

The room shudders, but not the icy woman sitting ramrod straight in the rickety chair in front of the five by five glass house Henry is sequestered inside.

Yami has never been a patient man.

“No one's taking him anywhere, hag.” He grunts lowly, his hand bleeding profusely from the hole he's punched through the wall.

Lady Legolant doesn't even look at Yami, keeps her eyes straight ahead at Henry, daring him to look away. Henry's shaking like a leaf, shaking so bad that Gauche is breathing heavily, a mirror already conjured and ready to go, the rest of the Black Bulls in a similar state.

“Is this your man, Henry?” Lady Legolant asks softly.

Henry chokes back a sob before answering. “Noooooooo.”

“Then what's the matter, son? Don't you want someone to love you?”

Before Yami can swipe at the woman with his rusty sword, an arm shoots out and grabs Yami's arm in a vice grip.

“What are the terms of the contract?” Noelle enunciates just as coldly as the woman sitting prim and proper in her chair.

“Property, gold, wealth,” Lady Legolant ticks off, one by one.

“In exchange for?”

That's when they all freeze, captured in a haze of icy green and poisonous gold. Lady Legolant smiles so widely, Grey thinks her face will split in half and reveal a giant maw.

“ _Power.”_

* * *

The man who's asked for Henry's hand in marriage wants him to suck the mana out of his discoveries, because no one wants to buy a cursed amulet unless they're specifically dealing in curse magic, and sometimes an amulet is just an amulet, and someone with too much wealth and power will pay any price to covet something they deem exotic and pretty. And so, when word travels around the kingdom that the esteemed House Legolant has an unmarried heir currently in favor with the Wizard King, an heir who _also_ happens to be a mana-sucking vampire who can only live in isolated places where he won't come in contact with actual citizens, the suitor in question is intrigued.

But it isn't until the invasion of Spade Kingdom that the suitor decides courtship is in consideration. The capitalists are in the war room when the captains of the Silver Eagles, Purple Orcas, and Azure Deer beseech them to fund their initiatives, because a war isn't cheap, and the wealthy have a duty to the realm during its most trying times.

The suitor agrees to transfer the monies, because he himself is but the third son of a mid-ranking noble, and all of his wealth is his own, because third sons inherit nothing but a name, and so the blood that he's shed to earn his keep is his alone. He pays the war tax, and excuses himself. He plans to leave the country soon, because war is bad for business, and he can always take an extended trip outside Clover's borders to acquire more bounty while governments collapse and people die.

But then he sees the tell-tale waterfall of sky blue hair, a man sitting inside a glass cube, laughing heartily as a young fire mage and lightning user duke it out in full view of any Magic Knight or noble wishing to enter the Wizard King's palace to talk shop.

Something stirs in the man's chest, and it's something worse than his desire for wealth and power.

He wants that laugh.

* * *

The lady of the house only approaches Henry once the suitor has drafted a contract even the Silvas' barrister would envy. It's the only reason Lady Legolant is here today, because once Henry is married off, one of Lord Legolant's bastards can finally take over the seat because a vampire can never be expected to lead such a regal clan, and thus deserves nothing more than the sharp claws of _another_ monster.

And so Henry shakes, Yami seethes, and Noelle rereads the terms and conditions out loud six times before turning to Henry and asking him if he agrees to them.

* * *

Henry says yes because he fears two things in life – losing the Black Bulls, and his father's wrath.

He cries after his mother leaves, and Yami snaps again, starts yelling at him for being a coward and letting the bitch walk all over him, and Henry is crying, he's crying because no one understands, and it's Secre who has to break up the fight and drag Yami out of the base and into the woods to cool down while Henry wails in agony and Asta watches helplessly.

* * *

Lord Legolant is just Henry but twenty years older and with blue eyes. A tall, lithe frame couples with long blue hair that's pulled back with emerald and diamond clasps. There are flowers too, but Gordon recognizes the poisonous nightshade pinned to the loose bun, and stops Grey and Gauche from getting any closer, because even though the man _looks_ human, he _isn't_. No human can look so alive and so dead at the same time.

Lord Legolant invites them to their estate because this is where the wedding will take place and the contract will be signed. It's because a member of a royal house deserves a royal wedding, according to Lady Legolant.

Lord Legolant wants them to experience the vast and open estate before its transformed into a wedding venue.

Zora doesn't join them because he's the first to realize there's something more to the charade.

* * *

It takes a little digging and a lot of snooping, but Zora's able to obtain records of the suitor's sales from years ago, and he doesn't like how the numbers don't match the revenues from the wares. He takes a moment to ruminate on why any man would pay triple the market rate for a ruby ring when rubies aren't that rare, and it's only after he digs into the history of the buyer that he realizes that the suitor isn't dealing in exotic treasure – he's dealing in flesh.

* * *

Human beings are trafficked as slaves in Spade, captured and experimented on in Diamond, and kept in line by an all-seeing queen in Heart – but Zora has never met a man who trades in literal flesh meant for food.

He tells Charmy first because Charmy feels the guiltiest out of them all for having invited the Lady into their home, so Zora gives her, her one shot at redemption – to find the flesh and lead them to the truth.

* * *

By the time Zora tells the rest of the squad about his findings, it's seven days before the wedding, and the the suitor is set to begin his nightly courtship visits the very next morning.

But seven days is nothing – not when Henry's future is on the line.

* * *

Zora's already done the grunt work, so now it's just creating a plan and then putting it into action.

It's Noelle who comes up with the idea of carrying out the missions piecemeal, seven to be exact, because it's bigger than them now, it's a royal house and a cannibal about to be charged with crimes against humanity, and Noelle isn't even sure they'll try House Legolant, since the barristers did nothing about Henry's abandonment.

Charmy's already disappeared with her sheep, aiming to find the place where the victims are held before they're sold off as food to different collectors all over the world. Luck prays for her, not because he's worried, but because he knows that her rage is much worse than his, and he can't imagine the kind of blood she will spill once she finds out what else the suitor is hiding.

Noelle assigns Asta and Grey to round-the-clock protection for Henry. At first glance, it makes sense because Asta is still magicless, and Grey can erect rooms, cubes, and other barriers that will allow for Henry to interact with people without harming them with his cursed magic.

But Asta is also a smooth-talker, and Grey is a master of disguise, and when the suitor arrives the following morning, Asta will sweet-talk him into letting his guard down, while Grey murders his guards and replaces them with clones.

They're humans second, Henry's friends first.

The third mission goes to Magna and Gauche, and they're to go into the countryside to investigate House Legolant's estate, a land so isolated from the other royal houses and high-ranked nobles that it's simply _too_ suspicious not to poke around. The Lord and Lady only know the cold heir of the impoverished House Adlai, and the poor hick with bad hair and even worse control over his magic.

But they don't know the thief, and they absolutely don't know how hot black fire burns.

Finral and Gordon tag-team to gather intelligence on House Legolant's movement in high society ,and business ventures in the common realm. They're set to tap their respective family members for information. Finral already has Langris', his stepmother's, and Ledior Vaude's schedules memorized, so they'll go to the Vaude estate first, and next up is the old dame of House Agrippa, the woman who's reverence for demons is so unprecedented, Gordon has no doubt his grandmother will know _exactly_ what House Legolant has been up to in the curse magic market.

Vanessa, Luck, and Zora get the suitor's estate, the most onerous of all the missions, because the mansion is hidden in a forest swarming with cursed creatures and unruly magical beasts. In addition, the mansion only sees the suitor for days at a time before the suitor flies off to his next dig. They'll need to adjust their plans as needed, because they don't know _where_ the information will take them, but at least with Rouge, it'll be easier.

Noelle assigns the sixth mission to Secre and Yami, instructing them to play the dutiful elders of the squad, and assist House Legolant with the preparations for the grand wedding they all hope will fall through in time, because Yami can't be around Henry without feeling guilty, and Secre is colder than House Legolant will ever be, and can match the Lord and Lady's iciness with her own noble frigidity.

She assigns the seventh mission to herself, and doesn't mention its existence to anyone – not even her captain.

* * *

The suitor is a tall, well-dressed man with long, golden blonde hair that curls into wisps. He eyes are as ruby red as Secre's, and his countenance is so pale, so _bloodless_ , that at first glance, one might just mistaken _him_ for the vampire instead of Henry.

Henry's hair is braided in a plait with flowers from Charmy's garden and sapphire clips from Lord Legolant's jewelry box, courtesy of Asta's careful fingers. He's in his glass house when the suitor walks into the Black Bulls base, staring blankly at the ground while dressed in a tailored suit made of rich velvet.

“You're even lovelier up close,” the man whispers, and Henry almost jumps, because the voice scrapes against his skin like nails against a chalkboard.

Bloody red eyes peer hungrily at him through the clear glass, and Henry has to internally pray to every god whose name he can remember so that he doesn't scream.

* * *

It all comes together rather quickly, and with two days left to spare before the wedding.

Intel is easy, and the members of the Black Bulls are not only the laziest Magic Knights in the kingdom, but also the most efficient. House Legolant trades in enchantment spells and ritual sacrifice, which is why their estate is isolated from the others. It's worse than they imagined, of course, because it's not blood or gold they're sacrificing to their demon familiars, it's something much worse.

Souls – House Legolant barters away children's soul while they're still in the womb, in exchange for wealth, prosperity, and the ability to spread its legacy across all four kingdoms of their great continent. Nobles and commoners alike come to them for hellish grace, and they walk away rich, sometimes beautiful, sometimes crueler than before.

Every child of House Legolant is bartered away, bastards include.

Most of the time, the children grow up fine, even if they all have hidden vices that spread misery unto others, but Henry is the first in their line of sacrifices that is cursed with the ability to suck mana from another creature. The demon who cursed him allegedly wanted to see how a magic-sucking vampire would fare in a world where mana is everything, and so it laid its curse, and then went about its merry way before returning on Henry's twelfth birthday.

It's Finral who discovers this from his drunken stepmother. The demon saw that Henry was sitting alone inside of a big house, and laughed, it laughed so hard that it decided to curse other children with this particular strain of vampirism.

Except, those other cursed children are killed by their noble parents before they can ever grow up.

Gordon finds out from his grandmother that the demon isn't even from their continent, while Gauche and Magna learn that Lord Legolant has a taste for virgin women and their supple hands. Magna finds the room with enchanted glass jars holding well-manicured hands chopped off at the wrist, while Gauche discovers pits full of bones that span across decades.

It only gets tricky when Grey's clones discover a body in the suitor's basement – a body that looks eerily similar to the suitor's.

* * *

Secre meets the suitor second to last. She realizes it's a demon when its cold lips touch her equally cold hand.

* * *

“It killed the nobleman and assumed its figure,” Grey confirms, having snatched a rib bone from the decaying corpse so that Gordon's father could run a DNA test. “The results match his family members.”

“But why?” Asta gripes with frustration. “It already cursed him once – why would it come back just to _marry_ him? Doesn't he technically have a claim on his soul already?”

“I don't think the original bargain has anything to do with it,” Secre interrupts. “It let him go once, according to Finral's stepmother... so that must mean something happened recently for it to come after Henry again.”

“What, you sayin' it's Henry's fault the fucker wants him?” Yami grunts threateningly.

“No one has to _do_ anything to invite violence into their home, Yami Sukehiro,” Secre bites back coldly.

“Cut it out, you two!” Vanessa snaps, exhaling harshly while tapping her left foot incessantly against the floor. “If you don't keep your voices down, he'll hear us.”

“We're in the fucking woods, witch,” Yami barks. “And who you callin' _loud?_ ”

Vanessa glares and Yami fumes, while Secre broods and Grey helplessly jitters nervously in her seat on the log.

“What if he wants to take Henry to the Underworld?” Luck pipes up. “Like some kind of evil baron from those fairy tales! You know, the ones where the bad guy kidnaps the pretty lady, and the prince has to find her! Like that!”

“... that seems too easy,” Gauche huffs. “Why can't he just hire an actress? And Henry's not a _girl._ ”

“You don't have to be a girl to be a victim,” Zora drawls from his perch on a tree branch.

“As much as I hate to admit it, Luck might be right,” Magna grumbles.

“The Underworld....” An idea sparks in Noelle. “Why don't we take a trip then?”

“And how are we supposed to do that?” Finral asks timidly from his seat next to Vanessa who is still glaring at Yami.

“I might know someone,” Noelle shrugs.

And that's how the Black Bulls, minus Charmy, end up at Dorothy Unsworth's doorstep in the middle of the night.

* * *

Henry's birds report back to him, telling him all about the things his friends have said in the woods, about his family's crimes, about the demon who wants to drag him down to Hell. He feels bad for spying on them, but spying is all he's been able to do over the years, because Henry is cursed, and if his friends go any further down this rabbit hole, then they will be cursed too.

“Gooooo toooooo hiiiiiiiiiim,” he tells one of his red-breasted bluebirds. “Teeeeeeell hiiiiiiiiiiiim heeeeeeeeeee caaaaaaaan taaaaaaaaaake meeeeeeeeee toooooooniiiiiiiiiiight.”

Before the wedding – before his friends get themselves killed.

* * *

When the Black Bulls sans Charmy return the following morning, Henry Legolant is gone. They find his final letter tied to the foot of one of his bluebirds.

_'I'm sorry.'_

* * *

That should be the end of the story. The house is already in Yami and Secre's names, because Yami has alluded to retiring soon, and Secre will live for centuries more, and Henry doesn't want his friends to be without a home once they take off their black capes. His barrister knows that there is gold and cash reserved for Asta, Magna, Luck, and Zora once they confirm Henry's death. For some, he's put aside property and assets. He wants Gauche to be able to build himself and his little sister their own home, he wants to fund Vanessa's travel around the world world, wants Finral to have funds he can rely on in case his family disowns him again. To Noelle, he leaves a crate of blankets he's knit over the years, made from the finest wool, and in colors and designs he knows Noelle will appreciate. To Gordon and Grey, there is wealth and knowledge in the form of books, businesses, stocks, and bonds that he's accumulated and managed over the years, all of which he knows Gordon and Grey will look after and grow because he believes in their intellect and their ability to persevere.

And to Charmy Pappitson, he leaves the forest he's hidden himself away in all these years, giving her the space to grow all the yummies she will ever need, because Charmy is the first to feed him with love after all his years of solitude.

So maybe _that's_ why Charmy Pappitson is the one who breaks down the door to the demon's palace.

* * *

It takes Nozel's silver eagle, Dorothy's dream magic, and Finral's portals to get the Black Bulls sans Charmy to _just_ the demon's realm. The palace is still miles up ahead, but the second they see the muddy footprints of sheep and a person, they know that they'll be fine, because Charmy is here.

And so they fly, fly as fast as they can with all of their weapons brandished, the day before the wedding, the day before the demon takes their Henry away forever.

* * *

“Would you like me to wear a different skin?” The demon asks Henry as it lifts his chin. “Perhaps that captain of yours... or maybe that goof with the green highlights? Or maybe the mirror mage... Tell me, beautiful – how would you like me to take you?”

Henry just stares, dull and deflated, as the slithering gray creature with six arms and a stinger for a tail continues to stroke his chin and stare hungrily at his lips.

* * *

“Give Henry back, you bastard!”

“... is that a child?”

“ _Chaaaaaaaaaaaaarmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”_

* * *

The fight is long and hard, and Charmy is just transforming into her wolf form when the rest of the Black Bulls storm in with their magic and weapons. Henry is locked in a cage, pressed against the bars, rooting for Charmy, laughing, _cheering_ his friend on as she lands punches, kicks, and platefuls of rotten food at the demon screeching in a language neither of them can understand.

And Henry is smiling, is _laughing_ , and that's all the rest of the Black Bulls need before they charge at the creature together.

* * *

They return to their world on the day of Henry's wedding, Charmy carrying Henry in her real, two-feet tall form, as he laughs heartily because the demon managed to do at least _one_ good thing, and that was stripping Henry of his curse before stealing him away to the Underworld. Gordon and Gauche are holding up Yami, who's broken his leg, and Noelle and Luck are carrying Finral and Grey on their backs because they've exhausted their magic, with Zora in the lead because he's the only one left with any functioning brain cells, while the rest follow him like ducklings, tired but content.

And maybe _this_ is when the story ends... or maybe not.

* * *

No one calls off the wedding – they simply decide not to show up, and Henry spends the day hugging each of his friends over and over again until he's so exhausted, he falls asleep on Vanessa's lap while she's chugging her beer.

No one calls off the wedding, but that doesn't mean Noelle has forgotten her mission. When she thinks everyone has fallen asleep, she sneaks out and treks four miles to a hollow tree where she's stashed an extra broom. Then she flies to the Legolant Estate and sneaks into their mansion.

She slits Lord and Lady Legolant's throat with a short blade that once belonged to her mother, the one she reclaimed from Vanica Zogratis after murdering her during the invasion of Spade.

“Seriously, Noe? Could you be any louder?” Magna grumbles from behind her.

“Eep!” She yelps before scrambling back with her bloody blade. “You're supposed to be asleep!”

“Only Henry's asleep, and that's because Charmy drugged him,” Zora drawls.

“He needs his rest, la!”

“Did ALL of you follow me!?” She almost shrieks.

“Yeah, except Henry and Boss Man, the leg's too fucked up for him to move much,” Magna sighs.

“Miss. Secre and Asta are on watch outside!” Charmy adds scandalously. “Hurry! We have to get rid of the bodies before the servants wake up!”

And that's what they do – Zora wraps the bodies in bedsheets while Magna creates a pit of black fire right in the middle of the bedroom. Once the fire is rumbling, Zora tosses one body in after the other. Noelle wipes off any trace of blood and bodily fluid with a magic cleaner she picked up at the black market, while Charmy makes quick work of the fruits on the bedroom credenza.

Once the black fire reduces the bodies to ashes, Magna closes his eyes and focuses mana into the tips of his fingers. With two strikes, the black pit disappears along with the ashes, and all that's left is the bedroom floor, as pristine as it was when they first arrived.

“Where...” Noelle balks, and Magna winks, before sticking his thumb at the window behind him. Noelle walks over to the window and peers out. In the distance, she can see the tell-tale colors of Finral's portal magic. In that moment, Noelle realizes that no one will _ever_ find out what's happened to the Lord and the Lady of this house, and it's all thanks to her friends – her family.

“I don't know about you assholes, but I'm ready to go home,” Zora yawns.

“Yeah, it's sleepytimes, la!”

“Quit yellin' before we get caught!”

Noelle hopes her mother is watching over her – watching over her friends.

* * *

Henry wakes up at noon to a grand feast. Charmy roasts turkeys, chickens, and two whole boars, but that's _still_ not enough to satiate some of their appetites, so she whips out the cow meat, fresh seafood, and tofu next. Wine flows and music plays, and as usual, there are shenanigans and fights and maybe even a kiss or two, but who can tell?

All they know is that they're happy – and maybe that's all that really matters.

* * *


End file.
